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Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1076, 25 August 1904, Page 2

Horo stall the Trots tho l'nuplo's llirlit maintain Unfitted by influoiuo tail unbriM by K»i»; Horo patriot Truth her flcrwus |>r«ooiits 'lm, Pledged to Relivion Libert;, mil Law

From papers to hand by the mail it would seom that in no part of tho world are tho successes of the Japanese praised more enthusiastically than in India, and in this connection a well-informed writer in one of thera says that the show of feoling ought not to be disregarded at Home, and he urges that the Empire should awake to the realisation of what is taking place in our Indian possessions, On the ono side he points out we havo a nation which is admittedly the greatest existing menace to India. On the other stands Japan, young, precocious sprung from barbarism with magical rapidity, a miraclo amongst nations, and—most important fact of allentiroly Eastern. If Russia wins, her menace is the greater, If the victory is with Japan, wo shall have the spectacle for tho first timo in roccnt history of a distinctively Asiatic nation overcoming a Western, And tho effect of such an issue amongst the treacherous and uncertain peoples of tho East cannot lie calculated, It is true the mass of the Indian population is densely ignorant. Rut in contrast to this mass of ignorance stands what, for want of a bettor name wo may call the Bahoo class. It! numbers are vory large, and they fo in the public opinion of India, 'l'itey can think with some intelligence, if not always with sanity, on any (ju stion. They aro the source 'from which any native political movement swings,a fact exumplified by the rocont agitation concerning tho partition of Bengal. The native feeling ispnetically universally in favor of Jaj an. Everywhere it is apparent, fiorn the larger townn with tbir native

papors down to the email townshipa, | where the daily war news iB read , with eagerness. Articles laudatory of .Japan constantly appoar; tlio local vernacular Press devotes columns to the subject; and the English official when on tour finds his daily nowspapor in great request by the Moos of his district. For this interest of the educated classes, universal, though varying in degree, no one reason can be assigned. The

fact that .Japan o'vos her success to qualities which are the antithesis of the typically Hasten) matters not. Geographically she is Asiatic, and that is sufiicient. There is, too, the [ond, if mistaken, idea which the Baboo undoubtedly harbours, that he and the Japanese have many points of similarity. But what lies sit the back of the native mind, and inlluences all his ideas, appears to be the fear of Russia. They know vaguely that under no are their liberties so great as under G-eat Britain, and a victorious Russia would become to the Indian mind a more present and practical danger to their tranquility. Hence they are enthusiastically pro-Japanese. But hero a now menace is believed by some to lie. The result of .Japan defeating a Western Power, it is said, would be to unsettle the native mind, to resurrect recently Iraried tendencies, and to create unrest throughout India, and this _ fear gains some support from the attitude of tlio native Press, which in pointing tlio moral of tlio Japanese victories, continually proclaim a parallel between Japan and the various provinces of India. Japan, they say, rose suddenly from obscurity, entirely through the development of a native sentiment, Only let the people of India unite and loster the growtli of a national sentiment, and no man can say where they will stop. The writer attaches little

mporlanco to this, and rathur makes igkt of any dangerous combination. i-lis view is dissented from by many, jut at least it is a reassuring one.